Cable network and other operators often offer access to a variety of video products in many different formats and types. Consumer digital video can be stored and accessed in many forms and via many services. A single piece of video content may be one continuous stream or sliced into several pieces such that advertisements may be inserted.
The same movie/show title can be stored and formatted so that multiple versions of the content may be available. Some versions of a program may be viewed on the TV screen using a QAM Set-top box while the same or other versions of the title maybe be available on any of a variety of IP enabled companion devices, such as the Apple iPAD, Android tablet, PC browser, smart TV, gaming station and more. At the same time a given movie/show can be available as part of different services with commercials being provided in the case of some services but not others.
As customers go from one device to another or from service to service seeking to receive content corresponding to the same program but potentially in different formats and with differing amounts of advertisements, it would be desirable if a common in progress point could be maintained.
Unfortunately, in current systems the in progress point tends to be dependent on the version of the program being played and often the content stream in which the program is provided making it difficult to use an in progress point corresponding to one presentation with a different version of the same program or when the same program is presented as part of a different service.
At issue is that the time from the beginning of a video to the bookmark or in progress point used for a presentation commonly varies depending on whether or not advertisements were inserted into the video since the advertisements affect the overall duration of the content stream to which the in progress point relates.
Advertisements generally have durations of either 30 seconds or 1 minute. Thus, a bookmark half-way through a show will vary by the number of advertisements before the NPT (Normal Play Time) in the content being viewed and the number of advertisements prior to the NPT in which the show viewing is resumed. Thus, if a user begins watching a live version of the video and then switches devices to watch a version at a later time via a Free On-Demand (FOD/VOD) asset the show will pickup at a point that may deviate by several minutes. This is an annoyance to customers who must then fast forward or rewind to get back to the point they left off
Thus it should be appreciated that an individual piece of content, e.g., a television program, movie, etc. maybe available in various versions, e.g. a version intended for TV, an extended length version including content not included in the original movie due to intentional constraints on the duration of the movie presented in theaters, versions formatted or edited for particular frame rates, etc. Thus, for a given title, there maybe a variety of versions available with potentially different durations and with some versions being suitable for playback on some devices but not others, e.g., due to format or other issues.
In addition the possibility of different durations for a title depending on which version is being viewed, the overall duration of a content stream used to provide a particular version of a title will tend to depend on the duration of commercials, if any, included in the content stream used to provide a version of a particular title to a user, e.g., as part of a streaming or other playback operation.
Thus, it should be appreciated that the service used to provide a program, and the advertisements included therein can make it difficult to use an in progress point from one service when providing another service.
While different versions of a title and different streaming options can affect overall duration of a content stream and thus program presentation, advertisements may be placed at different locations within a content stream depending on when the content is being played back and/or on which devices the content is being played back. For example, a subscription program content steam may include advertisements at 15 minute intervals while a free, no fee, streaming version of the same version of a program may require viewing of an advertisement after every few minute segment, e.g., 5 minute segment, before the next portion of the content is streamed.
Thus, it should be appreciated that depending on the service and placement of advertisements in a content stream, a viewer halting content stream playback may be at a different location within the program content depending on which version of a program a viewer is watching and/or depending on the presence, absence and/or location of advertisements in the content stream used to provide the program content.
Many streaming services allow a user to stop viewing program content and resume steaming of program content at a later time on the same device from which content was being previously viewed. This may be achieved by simply storing the current playback position of the content stream used to provide the program content and resuming playback from the same point in the content stream assuming no changes in the content steam from the time the playback was halted and the time the playback is resumed.
As the number of devices on which a user may seek to stream content increases, e.g., with users seeking to begin content playback on a first device at a first point in time and continue content playback on a second, e.g., different device, at another time, it may not be possible to simply resume playback of the content stream to the second device. This maybe because the second device does not support the same encoding formats and thus content streams as the first device and/or the second device may not be able to receive the content stream that was being supplied to the first device because of contractual or physical distribution constraints. For example, when the second device is a cell phone or mobile device and the first device is a cable set top box, the cell phone may not be able to receive the content stream which was previously used to supply content to the cable set top box, e.g., because the cell phone will be supplied with a different version of the program than the set top box which is optimized for transmission and display on the cell phone device and/or because the cell phone is provided the program content from a different server than the set top box which does not have the same version of the program that was being provided to the set top box. For example, a first version of a program content may be delivered when an Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) stream is used while a different version of the same content may be delivered when a linear MPEG Transport Stream (MPEG-TS) is used. The advertisements durations and/or locations in the content stream supplied to the cell phone may also be different from those provided in the content stream supplied to the set top box.
In such a situation, simply using the time, in terms of content stream location, as measured from the beginning of the content stream supplied to the set top box and using that as the time from the start of the content stream which will be supplied to the cell phone, is likely to result in the playback to the cell phone beginning at a different location within the program title than the location within the program at which the user stopped viewing program content supplied to the set top box.
It should be appreciated that there is a need for methods and apparatus which can be used to allow a user, who stops viewing a content stream including a program on a first device, to resume viewing on the same program on the same or another device with the resumption starting at or near the same place in the actual program content where the user stopped viewing the content stream on the first device.